I wasn’t sure that that was an improvement, as I distinctly heard a sound like cracking eggs, but before I could point that out, the room went dark. At the same time, there was a terrific whooshing noise paired with a sucking sensation, and then a bellow of what felt like air but hit like a fist, sending me stumbling back against the wall. I hit, bounced off, and spun back around—

In time to see something flash by the windows, going up. Something black and huge, but moving so swiftly that I blinked and it was gone, before I could identify it. And it didn’t look like Mircea had had any better luck.

Even more worrying, the fey had stopped pounding on the door.

“What—” I asked him, but he shook his head.

He cautiously approached the line of windows, gesturing for me to stay back. Which made no sense. If the fey were planning to flank us, and climb around the building and come in through the openings, then we were both about to be—

“Don’t stick your head out!” I said, hurrying over as he did just that. An arrow through the brain could sideline even a master for a few moments, and with the fey, that might be enough.

“There’s nothing here,” he said, glancing around the gray expanse of mountains, sky and wall. There was nowhere for anyone to hide, not even behind the vine that had scrawled up the castle’s side and died, leaving only withered fingers clawing at the stone.

I felt myself relax slightly.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s get out of here, find Pritkin, and—”

And then I was flying.

It took me a moment to realize what had happened. All I saw for a dizzying second was a swirl of gray and something huge and black that appeared and disappeared in flashes. I caught the latter out of a corner of my eye, but couldn’t see it too well, because I’d been caught by one leg, leaving my skirts falling into my face. And before I could fix that, I was interrupted again.

By another vision.

“Got him!” Pritkin’s voice said triumphantly.

My eyes blinked in sudden darkness. A torch somewhere nearby was splashing dark stone with honeyed light, which was also reflecting off the eyes of a very strange looking creature. It looked like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, with its fur covered body dressed in old timey clothes—if the rabbit had been a really messed up goat with savage looking horns and a maw of razor-sharp teeth that it was using to snap at me. It made me worry that I—or rather, Pritkin—was holding the creature only by the neck.

“Cassie! Did you hear me?” Pritkin demanded. “I’ve got him; we can go!”

“Yes, I—I heard you. But I’m kind of busy right now—”

“Doing what?”

“I’m not… entirely sure—”